Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-09
Under the microscope.

NOW, you see, SAID LIT. ocnaeHer,
the microscopist, as he held before o
Washington Star reporters eye little
piece of red something he had taken
from bottle of alcohol. "You see, If
the canpibals had eaten him he would
have killed the whole tribe. But it was
not the trichinosis that killed him. He
died from some other cause" The thing
held in the doctors hand was a piece of
the diaphragm of man who died at
the insane asylum. and it was COM
pletely filled with trichina. They could
be easily seen with the naked eye.
On table stood that inquisitive little
instrument with which scientists dis
cover microbes, bacteria, infusoris, fungi
and all those death dealing invisibles
awe. The reporter learned that upon
the glass slide under the little instru-
ment there might be assembled in full
war paint microbes enough to infest a
large city, and he stepped back little
from the table. Then when he thought
that science has discovered that sugar,
water, meat, cheese, tea, coffee and even
-four were vehicles in which these terri.
BILE little creatures have free passage into
the blood of th.ir human victims, the
reporter decided to forswear all food
until Congress had passed law for the
determination of microbes.
The doctor Is in constant intercourse
with these little terrors and gets into
their secrets. He studies their habits
and is familiar with their mode OF
thought. He is on terms of easy famil.
iarity with them.
lis it really very dangerous to eat
bread and sugar, or to drink water?" the
scribe asked him.
mites are sometimes found in sugar.
They are all dead In refined sugar. They
live only in sugar that has not been re-
fined," was the reply. I'm refined sugar
you eat their dead bodies. They are
often dreadfully mutilated by the refin-
ing process. Arms. legs, heads and
trunks are scattered in all directions.
As to their hurting you, let me say |
will eat just as many mites as you
will bring along. 1t would take
many millions to make q good meal.
l am very skeptical about the alleged
of disease. For that reason
have not much faith in Pasteur. l fail
to find this minute life in fresh fruit,
meat, water, -four or any
decay. The life that is found in refined
sugars is no more injurious to the human
body than are the little shippers that are
found in cheese. Limburger and other
high cheese abound in microbes pro.
duced by partial decay, but they are
harmless. do not think these things
develop in and remain in the human
body. l do not think they are con-
structed for that.
'You may remember" said the doctor,
"that learned gentleman OF my pro.
fession allowed some water to stay on
raw meat in the sun for two days, until
it had begun to decay and was full of
bacteria. He then drank it to see if the
bacteria would get into his blood. Then
at certain periods he took drops of his
blood and examined it under the micro.
scope. AT first he found one microbe in
his blood, then two, and then more, ETC.,
so he came to the conclusion that they
went at once into the blood after being
taken into the stomach.
"But this was not conclusive. ITO
test it still further | tried the expert
ment. l have a strong stomach. l
drank water prepared in the same way,
and in which there were many thousand
million bacteria. At no time did any of
them pass into my blood. l fear not
the deadly microbe.'
"There is nothing in fresh food and
fresh water. The life that is to be
found in water is not injurious. Stale
water and decayed food are bad. These
microbes are vegetable, not animal life,
With trichine it is different They live
naturally upon the animal organism.
Raw pork is thing to be Stunned.
The chances are that there are trichine
in any piece of pork you may come
across. A vast number of hogs have
trichinosis. The hog is terrible
breeder of disease. Besides being respon.
sible for trichinosie, it distributes
tape worms. 1t is a great crime for
butchers to sell pork that has been fed
on the offal of slaughter-house, as |
have seen done in this district. 1t is
spreading disease, just as farmer would
spread thistles if he sowed them with
his wheat. They eat small particles Of
tape worms from the entrails of other
animals, and the eggs develop very rap.
idly, and may be planted in the human
body by the eating of the hog flesh.
"From two joints of tape worm
have seen under the gass myriads of the
eggs flowing out. handle most any
poisonous thing without fear, but ar
always careful to wash my hands in al
cohol or carbolic acid after handling any
part Of tape worm. These are tht
things that belong with animal life and
are to be dreaded. There is nothing t.
fear from microbes, that scientists speal
of in fruit, flour and sugar, etc.
81 have formerly drank water out o
the canal. Iwould not do it now, bu
it would not be the ordinary impuritie
in the water that would deter me. Th
ordinary slop or filth that might b
thrown into the river may be very dis
gusting, but there would not necessaril,
any disease come from it. Diseas
would result only from diseased matter
Typhoid fever might be spread throug
the water ii the slops from the sic
room, containing the germs of the feve
were thrown into the water. No on
knows how many miles of water it woul
take to wash it away. 1t would he Q
if you threw millions of fish eggs in tn
river above the aqueduct. The chance
would be that some of them would fin
} their way through the water pipes int
} some ones drinking glass.
! "But to sum up, microbes are M
found in fresh food, and they aren